Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive will examine the scope for publishing informationrelating to the decision to locate the permanentheadquarters of the National Theatre of Scotland in the Greater Easterhouse CulturalCampus, Glasgow, in accordancewith the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland)Act 2002.

Information is not held in the format requested. However, recent figures from the Scottish Opinion Survey suggest that 957,000 Scots were members of sports clubs.

The table details the number of people employed as cultural co-ordinators in the last three years and the number of posts which each local authority applied for. The table also indicates which local authorities have been awarded Phase II funding to date.

Each “post” is equivalent to two days per week. In responding to local need, local authorities have chosen to use their allocations in a number of different ways. Some create full-time positions, for example, whilst others deliver their service through several temporary appointments.In addition, they are not obliged to take up their full entitlement as these postsare match funded by the local authority.

Authority	Posts Applied For			Co-ordinators in post	Awarded Phase II
	Feb-03	Feb-04	Jan-05
Aberdeen City	8	3	3	3
Aberdeenshire	5	5	5	5
Angus	2	2	2	2
Clackmannanshire	2	2	2	2	yes
Dumfries and Galloway	6	4	6	4	yes
Dundee City	3	3	2	2	yes
East Ayrshire	6	3	3	3	yes
East Dunbartonshire	8	2	4	2
East Lothian	4	1	1	1
East Renfrewshire	4	20*	20*	20*	yes
Edinburgh, City of	8	4	4	4
Eilean Siar	4	0	0	1	yes
Falkirk	4	2	2	2	yes
Fife	8	4	4	4	yes
Glasgow City	8	5	5	5
Highland	8	8	6	0
Inverclyde	4	2	2	2
Midlothian	4	3	3	3	yes
Moray	4	1	1	1	yes
North Ayrshire	6	2	4	4
North Lanarkshire**	8 (withdrawn)	0	0	0
Orkney Islands	2	2	2	2
Perth and Kinross	2	2	2	2
Renfrewshire	4	4	2	4
Scottish Borders	1	1	1	1	yes
Shetland Islands	1	1	1	0	yes
South Ayrshire	3	1	1	0
South Lanarkshire	8	2	2	4	yes
Stirling	4	0	1	2
West Dunbartonshire	4	4	4	4	yes
West Lothian	4	2	2	2

Notes:

*East Renfrewshire delivers its Cultural Co-ordinators programme through20 education workers delivering activities on – on atemporary, short-term basis. This figure applies to all three years.

**Due to a seriesof recruitment problems the application from North Lanarkshire had to be withdrawn.

I should first make clear thatthese targets were not established by sportscotland. Sport 21 2003-2007:The National Strategy for Sport - Shaping Scotland’s Future, is the strategy for Scottish sport by Scottish sport.Its 11 targets were developed by all key partners with a role in developing anddelivering sport in Scotland and they will all play a part in helping achieve thesetargets. sportscotland and the Executive are only two of the many partners.

Sportscotland does play a co-ordinating role which includesgathering, collating and reporting information on progress against targets. Targets1 and 2 will be measured by the Executive using the Scottish Health Survey and bysurveying education authorities respectively. The remaining targets will be measuredby sportscotland using the Scottish Opinion Survey for targets 3 – 6, 9 and10; through obtaining regular updates from governing bodies of sport for target7; through its computerised facilities planning model for target 8, and obtainingfeedback from all local authorities for target 11. Because the initial two to three years of the Sport 21implementation process is largely concerned with planning, introducing programmesand establishing infrastructure, it was always anticipated that successful progresstowards the participation targets would occur more slowly during 2003 to 2005, andthen with greater momentum during 2006 and 2007.

Progress is reported annuallyto the Sport 21 National Implementation Forum chaired by me and on which all keypartners sit. The only figures available at present are those to April 2004 whichis only one year after the launch of Sport 21 and prior to the final endorsementof the related target strategies. These were reported to the Forum at its meetingyesterday and will be posted on sportscotland’s website at www.sportscotland.org.uk. The figuresup to December 2004 will be available in summer 2005, and will be reported formallyto the forum at its October meeting. These figures will give a more accurate indicationof progress being made.

The national languages strategywill be developed within the life of this parliament. The timetable for implementingit will depend on the strategy itself.

Total numbers participating in Historic Scotland’s free educational visits scheme over the last three years are as follows:

Year	Number of Children
2001-02	58,796
2002-03	57,777
2003-04	66,660 which was an 15.4% increase on the previous year.

 

The principles of the Charter, as they relate to Scots, find expression in Scottish Executive policies in education and the arts.

Officials of the Scottish Executive have been charged with advising ministers on the development of a national language strategy which will include measures in relation to Scots. The development of such a strategy is one of the government’s partnership commitments.

The UK government has signed Part II of the Council of Europe Charter for Regional and Minority Languages in respect of Scots. Part II consists of the main principles and objectives that are applicable to all parties and all regional and minority languages. The responsibility for the monitoring of these undertakings is principally for Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Scottish Executive assists the FCO in this exercise.

Local authorities were issued with advice on the Charter in February 2002. At this point the Scottish Executive wrote to all Scottish local authorities and public bodies informing them that the UK Government had signed the Charter and informed them of the specific measures and undertakings. The Scottish Executive has also issued guidance to local authorities on the use of Scots in the classrooms.